Abstract

Several measures of energy conservation, namely ADP/O ratio, P/O ratio, ATP/O ratio and phosphorylation detected by continuous assay with purified firefly luciferase and luciferin, all show phosphorylation can occur with mung-bean mitochondria at cyanide concentrations sufficient to inhibit the cytochrome oxidase system. Phosphorylation in the presence of cyanide is uncoupler- oligomycin- and salicylhydroxamate-sensitive. The participation of phosphorylation site 1 is excluded, phosphorylation being attributable to a single phosphorylation site associated with the cyanide-insensitive oxidase. The cyanide-insensitive oxidase has also been shown to support a variety of other energy-linked functions, namely, Ca2+ uptake, reversed electron transport and the maintenance of a membrane potential detected by the dye probes 8-anilinonaphthalene-1-sulphonate and safranine. High concentrations of cyanide have uncoupler-like activity, decreasing the ADP/O ratio and the t 1/2 for the decay of a pH pulse through the the mitochondrial membrane. This uncoupler-like effect is most marked with aged mitochondria. The observations of energy conservation attributable to the cyanide-insensitive oxidase are compared with other reports where it is concluded that the alternative oxidase is uncoupled.